We left Ganako Lodge around 8:30am with our boxed lunches and made our way to the Ngorongoro Crater. We first had to stop at the entrance gates to pay the park fee. The fee is 24 hours inside the Ngorongoro Area which includes the time you enter the gate until you leave the area (make sure to factor that in when leaving the Crater if driving towards the Serengeti or you could be stuck with an extra day’s fee by forgetting to include the couple hour drive on the other side). While our guide was taking care of that, we wandered around the visitor centre looking at a map of the area and animal information boards. Our next stop was a viewpoint overlooking the Crater. The Ngorongoro Crater is a UNESCO Heritage Site and is definitely an impressive natural wonder. The crater itself is the world’s largest intact and unfilled volcanic crater. Most of the animals within the Crater are permanent residents, though some of the herds do move about. Two animals absent from the crater floor include giraffes (hard for them to walk down the steep crater walls and not many trees to provide cover for them) and impala (though no reason is really known as to why they are absent). We absolutely loved every minute we spent in the Crater!

We woke up and had an early breakfast at the lodge before heading back to Lake Manyara National Park for a morning game drive until we returned to the lodge for a late lunch. We had another amazing day at the park. There is really only one main entrance to the park, so we entered at the same place passing by a lot of baboons and other monkeys, before heading off to the other sections of the park that we didn’t visit the previous day.

After spending the morning in Kenya at Amboseli National Park and the chaos of the Kenyan side of the border (read here), we met our Tanzanian guide and crossed over to Tanzania. The Tanzanian side was the complete opposite. Everything was very proficient and fast with clearly marked instructions and lines on where to go. All in all, we were into Tanzania without a lot of delay or time luckily.

From the border, we drove into Arusha for a quick stop for lunch of fish and chips at the Silver Palm Hotel, which was quite delicious. After our short lunch break, we drove the couple hours to Lake Manyara National Park.

We started Day 3 bright (or dark to be honest) and early as we had decided over dinner the night before that we should wake up and enjoy the sunrise over Mt. Kilimanjaro. Our waiter at dinner had recommended being outside by 6:15-6:20am if we really wanted to enjoy the whole sunrise, so that’s just what we did as we were leaving for our game drive at 7am anyways. The sunrise was beautiful as Mt. Kilimanjaro slowly was bathed in sunlight and the animals started wandering past on the open grasslands.

Today’s park, Amboseli National Park, was the park I was most looking forward to. I have a love obsession with elephants. I just think they are absolutely the coolest mammal. They are adorable and incredibly smart. I love how they communicate with their feet and that females lead the herds. I also love how much they care about each other and their families. Their respectfulness of dead elephants is also amazing. Yes, that’s a lot of love, but it’s all true. Amboseli National Park is known for it’s large herds of elephants, especially large huskers as the area wasn’t as hard hit by poaching. It became an official National Park in 1974 to protect the unique swamp environment of the area that spreads south to the Tanzania border. The background of Mt. Kilimanjaro also adds to the splendor of the park.